The present invention relates generally to the field of user authentication using images, and more particularly to applying temporal knowledge to files wherein the content varies with time to augment authentication.
Computer security typically relies on passwords and other personal identifiers. Multi-character passwords or personal identification numbers (e.g., PIN codes) are a common user authentication method. Web sites, e-commerce applications, and other secured resources require increasingly complex passwords (e.g., longer minimum password lengths, inclusion of non-alpha numeric symbols, rules governing character combinations, password change frequency, etc.) to improve security and act as countermeasures against fraud and cybercriminals (e.g., hackers). Increasingly longer and more complex passwords may confuse the human user or be forgotten by the user. The use of static visual images as a means for a user to authenticate or to gain access to a secure resource, software application, or function is generally known. Such images provide a user a relatively intuitive method to remember and prove knowledge by interacting with a static image or by selecting one or more images from a predefined set of images. Visual cues that are familiar to a user provide an alternative to passwords as a means of authenticating a user. Providing a user with images that have a temporal component (e.g., change with time), such as a video or animation clip, provides the user a larger selection of events to choose from when creating an authentication scheme.